Thank you stranger

"Smile... It confuses people" Sandi Thom (title of album)

I just walked past someone with the biggest smile on her face!! I want to know what she was thinking, I want to tell her "thank you," and I to walk past a smile like that more often! I know there is no recommended daily intake for smiles, but there should be. There is for vitamins, carbohydrates, salts... all to improve health. Why not for smiles, laughs and grins, with a warning against too many frowns and sneers? Whatever the minimum recommended dosage, we are all not getting enough of the leafy green vegetables, the potassium and the iron of what is needed for "head-health."

I wonder if she was thinking about her friends, or maybe she is in love for the first time? She may have won $10 on scratchie, or actually (for once) remembered a good joke. Who knows! That's what's nice about it.

I think we notice people more when they are smiling. I do. Is it because so few people smile outside the context of a positive interpersonal exchange, or outside the arena of social expectation? Maybe. I think we are also naturally attracted to smiles, they are not threatening, they do not need to be avoided. People look better when they smile, no? They make the recipient smile, and who doesn't like smiling?

I read somewhere... that the average child laughs around 400 times per day, but the average adult laughs only 15 times per day. Quelle domage!

I read somewhere... that it is not happiness that makes us laugh. It is laughter that makes us happy. C'est vrai, je croix.

A study at UNSW asked participants to solve what they didn't know were unsolvable anagrams (a task often used to induce low mood). There were two conditions: In the first condition, participants were required to attempt the anagrams while placing and holding a pencil horizontally in their mouths. The second group were asked to attempt the same anagrams, while holding a pencil by its end in their mouths. Both groups were then asked to complete a mood inventory. It was found that the second group scored higher on measures of depression following the impossible anagram task. The researchers concluded that the difference in the position of the lips and facial muscles contributed to the difference in scores. Thus, even holding your mouth in a position more smile-like could improve mood/protect against low mood. Bizarre, non?

So, smile and let people wonder. There's benefits.

N.B. "head-health" as it is used here, is a newly coined term that describes good mood, low stress, healthy brain function and everything else the ol' cerebral cortex requires for smiling at a stranger, humming under your breath, singing in the shower or with a hairbrush, and feeling a little like a kid again.